Build and Stick - Your New Habit Builder.
What do you get out of it?
How you build new habits
Tactics to stick to your new habits
Strategies to stack habits on each other
There is nothing easier than building long lasting habits, if it wouldn’t be so tricky to stick to them. Every first of you set out with goals for the year and after a couple of weeks or even days all is forgotten and you are back to the way of doing things like before?
Sounds familiar? Here is how you go about it.
How does it work?
Bring your habits in order
First it’s about ordering your thoughts, and therefore your habits. Understanding the reason and the importance of your habits will make it easier to structure and therefore to follow them.
Sit down and write a list of all the habits you would like to work on.
Answer the following questions to yourself:
What is the reason to put this habit on the list?
What kept me away to make it a habit in the past?
Who could help me to form that habit?
Whom would I like to impress by achieving that habit?
Be positive and specific in formulating what you want to build as a habit. Answer the following questions to yourself:
Can you formulate your habit positively? (“I will not smoke anymore” instead of “I will stop smoking”)
How often do you want to do something? ( is it 1, 5, or 2000?)
What exactly do you want to do? (Do you I want to do sports or go running?)
Order the habits that the most important habit is on top of the list
Answer the following questions to yourself:
How important is the result of each habit for me? Use a scale from 1-10 (10 very important, 1 not so important)
What will happen when I make this habit stick?
How would I tell my best friend if I have failed? How would that feel?
Choose the habit on top of your list to start with.
Time your habits with the method of least resistance
Our brains are clever and the resistance level of your mental strength weakens over the course of the day. For this reason we use the freshness of your mind and your personal rhythm as a supporting function to build your habits.
Define the timing that works best for you to establish a new habit.
Answer the following questions to yourself:
When am I freshest during the day, week?
When would the habit be most beneficial to me, my family members or friends?
What would stand in the way to establish the habit at that time?
Get habits to stick
It takes about 30 days to form a habit that sticks; therefore consistency is key. We recommend to build up accountability tactics to keep you on the goal streak of 30, 60, 90 days. For some of us it even requires a life long measuring and accountability system to keep us on track. Here a couple of examples of accountability tactics that have worked for us, pick and choose which one is right for you.
The buddy:
Find someone who is interested to establish the habit too, and build a bond and goal to do this together. Keep each other accountable on days when things get tough.
Do you want to leave your buddy alone?
Who could help me to achieve the habit?
Who would be good off doing the same?
How could I propose to to achieve the habit together?
The community:
Find a group that is working on the same topic to keep you accountable.
Do you want to tell the group you haven’t succeeded?
Whom do I know who is working on the same things?
How could I build a group myself?
How could I find a group?
What do I tell the group about my motivation?
The physical reminder:
Build a physical reminder that helps you to keep the habit.
Do you want to move the cloth laying in the middle of the hallway on the way from your bed to the kitchen or would you rather put them on and go for a 20 minute run?
What could I use as a physical reminder?
The digital alert:
Build an alert or reminder on your phone to beep at the time or place you want to form your habit.
Do you want to leave the check box of the reminder blank?
What tool am I using every day?
In which tool could I integrate this?
Stack habits with a trigger habit
If you have successfully established one habit you have overcome the resistance and it has become the new normal. Congratulations! Now you can easily use this to combine it with other habits you want to establish.
Example habit: I want to stand on one leg 1min each every day.
You brush your teeth at least 2 times per day, it is easy to use this as a trigger and stand on one leg while bushing your teeth. Just try it.
Answer the following questions to yourself:
What habits do I have established successfully in my life?
What do I do every day?
How could a new habit work in combination with it?
Why do we recommend it?
Knowing yourself builds self confidence. Being self confident helps to reflect openly about yourself and gives you the opportunity to be open to others, too.
As a leader it is critical to lead yourself before you lead others. Building habits is a little exercise in order to train the leadership muscles for leading yourself.
Building habits helps you to achieve dreams. Each little step of establishing a positive habit gets you closer to yourself.
Here are some habits we worked ourselves on:
I will read a book every week
I will listen to a podcast every day
I watch a TED talk every day
I eat a plant based diet
I go running 3 times for 60min in a week
I walk 10000 steps every day
I play 2h with my daughter every day
I meditate 10 min every day
I write 30 min every weekday
I do 20 push-ups 5 days a week
What are the habits you have successfully mastered? Let us know in the comments at the end of the page.
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